After fatal shooting, sister asks: 'What is Rahm Emanuel going to do about this?'

June 01, 2014|By Carlos Sadovi and Mitch Smith | Tribune reporters

Chicago police investigate a shooting death at 42nd Street and Princeton Avenue in Chicago. (Eric Clark, for the Chicago Tribune)

A 51-year-old man was killed and another man injured in the Fuller Park neighborhood on the South Side, two of six people shot Friday, according to family and officials.

The shooting happened at about 6:30 p.m. on the 4200 block of South Princeton Avenue, according to fire department and police officials.

The man was pronounced dead at the scene from wounds to his head and chest. A 32-year-old man was shot in the chest and was taken to John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County where his condition had stabilized, said Chicago Fire Department Chief Joseph Roccasalva and police.

Not even 20 yards from a busy stretch of West 43rd Street, police had covered a body with a tarp, an open hand still visible. Nearby, evidence markers sat outside a pool of blood.

Detectives spoke outside yellow crime scene tape with Norine Taylor, who identified herself to police as the sister of the deceased victim. She identified her brother as 51-year-old Charles Short. Records indicate he lived on the block.

"What is Rahm Emanuel going to do about this?" Taylor yelled through tears to nobody in particular.

"In the middle of the street," another woman added.

Taylor said she had spoken to her brother earlier Friday evening. She said her brother had three grown children and worked as a security guard.

"I heard Rahm Emanuel is thinking about giving money to Divvy bikes," she said. "He needs money to stop the shootings, to hire more police, to stop the killing."

At the same intersection where Taylor spoke, the blue light of a police camera flickered overhead, not even a block from where her brother's body remained in the street at 8 p.m., roughly 90 minutes after the gunfire.

Jamie Butler, 22, said he was in his room in a house around the corner when he heard gunfire. There were perhaps 20 shots, he said.

"I hit the floor," said Butler, who added that he'd heard gunfire before but never so many shots in such quick succession.

As he stood along a fence near the crime scene, he said the neighborhood violence makes him feel "fear, like you can't relax."

In addition to that shooting, a 26-year-old man was shot in the South Chicago neighborhood. The man was on the 7900 block of South Exchange Avenue at 4:40 p.m., said Chicago Police News Affairs Officer Thomas Sweeney.

The man was shot in the right leg and back, Sweeney said. He was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in serious-to-critical condition, said Roccasalva.

Earlier, a male was shot in the arm on the West Side at about 11:30 a.m. Friday morning, police said. The victim, whose age was not immediately available, told police he was shot on the 900 block of North Trumbull Avenue in the Humboldt Park neighborhood, police said. The man walked into Mount Sinai Hospital were he was treated for a gunshot wound to his arm, police said. His condition had stabilized.

About 10:45 p.m. Friday, a 21-year-old man was wounded in the 4400 block of North Sawyer Avenue in the Albany Park neighborhood. He was shot in the face and taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where his condition was stabilized. Police said someone fired at him and then got into a car and fled.

Saturday morning about 1:15 a.m., a 21-year-old woman was shot in the foot in the 2000 block of West 68th Street in the West Englewood neighborhood. She was walking with a group when someone opened fire from inside a passing black car, police said. Someone dropped her off at Holy Cross Hospital, where she was treated for the wound. No other details were immediately available.

About 2:15 a.m. Saturday morning, a 21-year-old man was walking in the 6500 block of South California Avenue in the Marquette Park neighborhood on the Southwest Side when he ran into a group of people on the sidewalk, police said. Shots were fired, the man was hit and the group scattered. He was dropped off at Holy Cross Hospital, where his condition was stabilized before being transferred to Mount Sinai Hospital.